Thursday, 12 November 2009

Scorpio / Escorpio

Yes, I left two of my arms at home. Hey, there! I´m Scorpio! Better late than never! Better six-armed than unarmed! To begin with, I apologize for being late. I should have arrived in October. But it´s the hunting season, and I´ve been really very busy reminding hunters to be at least ecological. And now I´m going to say that my story is one of those tales of epic fights, like Leo and Cancer´s. But I think you´ll find mine has something special, because I fought for a good cause.

It all started with a vain and cruel giant named Orion. He was so tall that when his feet where at the bottom of the sea, his head remained above the water. He was also said to be the handsomest man ever. But that wasn´t enough for him.

But while he was about it, he attracted the attention of the sun god and the moon goddess, Apollo and Diana, who were excellent archers and also involved with hunting. Although they were hunters themselves, Apollo and Diana had a different way of understanding hunting. They felt it was stupid and cruel to exterminate animals just for the sake of killing them. And they decided to do something about Orion. That something was me.

I was asked to stop Orion. I saw how the survival of the animal kingdom depended on me and I gallantly rose to the challenge. A fight between the giant and myself was soon organized. I choose my sting for a weapon. Orion chose his club. When I stepped into the ring, I knew I had to be really quick, or Orion would bash me with his club and all would be lost.

We had a big fight. Noisy enough to attract the attention of Zeus, king of the gods. I dodged Orion´s club for hours, doing the only thing I could which was wear him out, and finally he tired befoe I did and I got my chance to bite him. He was a huge guy but I was a giant of a scorpion myself. So I had enough poison in me to knock him out permanently and that was the end of that.

Zeus enjoyed the combat so much that he gave me a place among the stars. He even put Orion´s ghost up there too, where he couldn´t do any more harm and served as a warning to other hunters that they would not be allowed to go too far.

Scorpio has several star clusters. Below is a picture of the Ptolemy Cluster, which is named after me. I´m Claudius Ptolemaeus, a famous first century BC astronomer who saw these stars with the naked eye.